Classical Reviews
Stravinsky: Myths & Rituals, Philharmonia, Salonen, St John’s Smith SquareFriday, 03 June 2016
I had been looking forward to last night's concert since it was first announced over a year ago. For a Stravinsky nut the chance to hear pieces whose live performances are vanishingly rare was not one to be missed. And it turns out there are enough other fans of austere late Stravinsky to sell out St John’s Smith Square, which proved a very suitable venue for this programme. Read more... |
CBSO, McGegan, Symphony Hall BirminghamThursday, 02 June 2016
“Our Shakespeare” is the name of the CBSO’s current season. They're making the same point that Ben Elton makes slightly less subtly in Upstart Crow: that Shakespeare was basically a Brummie. And by implication, that four centuries of musical Bardolatory, from Purcell’s The Fairy Queen to Verdi’s Falstaff, is all on some level Made in Birmingham. Read more... |
Znaider, LSO, Pappano, BarbicanMonday, 30 May 2016
Anger and fear in Elgar, introspection in middle-period Beethoven: these are undervalued qualities in each composer’s music. Yet such moods were vividly present in two hyper-nuanced interpretations last night. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Kenneth Hesketh, Vaughan Williams, Ensemble PygmalionSaturday, 28 May 2016
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Cédric Tiberghien, Wigmore HallWednesday, 25 May 2016
This programme looked like a non-starter on paper, a long sequence of short Bartók dance settings, followed by a second half that was dominated by works for children from Bartók and Kurtág. But it worked, largely thanks to Cédric Tiberghien’s conviction in these short works and his ability to make imposing and decisive statements with a minimum of musical material. Read more... |
Prohaska, Eberle and Friends, Wigmore HallTuesday, 24 May 2016
A quick plot summary might be required here, because how this programme of Schubert, Pergolesi and Webern came into being was far from obvious. Two young soloists, one a violinist in her late twenties, one a singer in her early thirties, both born in Swabia (part of Bavaria), share the same agent and wanted to do a project together. So they are currently on an eight-date concert tour of five European countries. Read more... |
St Ludmila, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterMonday, 23 May 2016
The Victorians liked their oratorios long and loud (most of the time), and when Dvořák wrote St Ludmila for the Leeds Festival of 1886 he got the style exactly right. Sir Mark Elder brought his and the Hallé’s celebration of Dvořák to a thunderous close with a performance which deftly abbreviated the score and also unveiled a new English version derived from a working translation of the Czech text by David Pountney. Read more... |
Ibragimova, BBCSO, Oramo, BarbicanMonday, 23 May 2016
Sakari Oramo devised a bold programme for the final concert of the BBC Symphony Orchestra season: a new work from a young British composer, a popular but knotty violin concerto and an obscure pacifist oratorio. There were few obvious connections between the works, but all proved satisfying, not least for the excellent playing of the orchestra itself. Read more... |
BCMG, Galbreath, Adrian Boult Hall BirminghamSunday, 22 May 2016
So this is the end of the Adrian Boult Hall, due to be demolished in a matter of weeks. And to be honest, all but the most nostalgic of Birmingham concertgoers will find it hard to mourn. It’s no architectural masterpiece – nothing like John Madin’s superb Central Library, one of Britain’s greatest postwar buildings, currently being pulverised next door in an act of civic vandalism that’s been compared to the destruction of the Euston Arch. Read more... |
Rysanov, Neary, BBC NOW, Outwater, Hoddinott Hall, CardiffSaturday, 21 May 2016
Apart from festivals like the BBC Proms that do everything, the best festivals have always been the ones that cut a distinctive profile. They might not offer the best music. Those old French festivals of modern music – Royan, La Rochelle, Metz – were a nightmare of clichéd avant-gardism. But you got what was written on the tin, and if you didn’t like it, serve you right for going. Read more... |
Kenneth Hesketh: horae (pro clara) Clare Hammond (piano) (BIS)Pages
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